Ropa Vieja (Cuban Style Stewed Shredded Beef)
Ropa Vieja (Cuban Style Stewed Shredded Beef)

Hey everyone, I hope you are having an amazing day today. Today, we’re going to prepare a special dish, ropa vieja (cuban style stewed shredded beef). One of my favorites. For mine, I am going to make it a little bit tasty. This will be really delicious.

A Filling Beef Meal Ropa Vieja is a main course of shredded and braised beef with plenty of healthy, tasty vegetables, like onions, peppers and olives. The key to a successful Ropa Vieja is flank steak. The reason: this type of meat is the perfect candidate for a low, slow cooking process; as the meat.

Ropa Vieja (Cuban Style Stewed Shredded Beef) is one of the most popular of recent trending meals in the world. It is appreciated by millions daily. It’s easy, it is fast, it tastes delicious. They’re nice and they look wonderful. Ropa Vieja (Cuban Style Stewed Shredded Beef) is something which I have loved my entire life.

To get started with this recipe, we have to prepare a few ingredients. You can cook ropa vieja (cuban style stewed shredded beef) using 25 ingredients and 9 steps. Here is how you cook it.

The ingredients needed to make Ropa Vieja (Cuban Style Stewed Shredded Beef):
  1. Get For efficiency, make sure to put the beef on the stove to boil before you start your knifework
  2. Make ready To boil the beef:
  3. Take 2.5-3 pound chuck roast cut into roughly 8 equal pieces (you can also use skirt or flank)
  4. Prepare 1/2 medium onion, cut in half
  5. Get 4 smashed garlic cloves
  6. Take 1 carrot, cut in thirds
  7. Get 1 celery stalk, cut in thirds
  8. Take 5 cups water, or enough to cover by about ½ an inch
  9. Take For the rest:
  10. Prepare 2 Tablespoons oil (olive or vegetable)
  11. Make ready half a medium onion, cut into ¼” strips vertically
  12. Take 1 red bell pepper, halved, cored, and cut into ¼” strips vertically
  13. Make ready 1/2 green bell pepper, cored and cut into ¼” strips vertically
  14. Make ready 4 cloves garlic, peeled and rough chopped
  15. Prepare 1/4 cup green pitted olives, cut into thirds or quarters
  16. Make ready 1 teaspoon cumin
  17. Prepare 1 teaspoon oregano
  18. Make ready 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  19. Take 2 bay leaves
  20. Get 1 1/2 Tablespoons tomato paste
  21. Make ready 1 (15 oz.) (or so) canned tomatoes
  22. Prepare 2 cups boiling liquid
  23. Prepare 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
  24. Make ready 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  25. Take 1/3 cup frozen peas (optional)

Ropa Vieja is made with a large cut of beef slow cooked in a tomato based sauce. The meat is so flavorful and tender and shreds so easily. I had this ropa vieja simmering away in my slow cooker yesterday and it smelled so good I thought I'd go crazy waiting to eat dinner! Ropa Vieja, Cuba's famously delicious shredded beef stew with peppers, tomatoes and olives, is a great recipe for the slow cooker!

Steps to make Ropa Vieja (Cuban Style Stewed Shredded Beef):
  1. Put the beef, the ½ onion, carrot, celery, and four garlic cloves in a 4 or 5 quart Dutch oven, pour in the water, cover the pot, and place over high heat, until the meat comes to a rolling boil (about 15 to 20 minutes). Then turn the heat down to medium, keeping the pot completely covered, and continue to boil the beef for another 40 to 50 minutes, or until the thickest part of the largest piece of beef is very easily pierced with a fork.
  2. While the beef is boiling, do all your knifework and set aside. When the beef is boiled, remove all the pieces from the liquid and cool for at least 20 minutes or while you prepare the base of the stew. Save 2 cups of the liquid in a mixing bowl or other container. You can discard the rest, or save it, like I do, to use as soup or sauce stock.
  3. In your Dutch oven, bring 2 Tablespoons oil up to slightly higher than medium heat and saute your onions, peppers, and garlic for 3 or 4 minutes, or until the onions are translucent and begin to wilt.
  4. Add in the cumin, oregano, black pepper, and bay leaves and stir to distribute evenly. Then add in tomato paste, canned tomatoes, boiling liquid, 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt, and ½ teaspoon sugar, and stir to completely dissolve the tomato paste into the liquid. At this point, your beef should be ready to shred. Remember the turn the heat off while you shred. :)
  5. Loosely shred all the beef (it doesn’t have to be a fine shred, unless you insist on it that way, but it is a little more work. Besides, the simmering will continue to separate the meat fibers a little more.) and put into pot with the stewing liquid. Turn the heat up to medium high and stir to incorporate thoroughly.
  6. With the pot covered, bring the Ropa Vieja up to a rolling boil for about 2 minutes (should take 7 to 8 minutes), uncover, stir a couple of times, turn the heat down to medium and simmer, fully covered, for another 15 minutes, stirring a couple of times halfway.
  7. Remove the lid and simmer the ropa vieja for another 10 to 12 minutes, stirring a couple of times halfway through to ensure everything is evenly cooked. Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning if needed.
  8. Remove from heat and let cool for at least 15 minutes (this will give the flavors time to set and the sauce time to thicken). If you’re adding frozen peas, right after you cut the heat is when you would fold them in. Adding them in at the end helps them retain their texture and color better.
  9. Buen provecho! :)

I've lived way too long hearing about, being tempted by, but not cooking Cuba's national dish, ropa vieja: shredded beef stew. Shredded beef and vegetables that resemble a heap of colorful rags - that's Ropa Vieja. Traditionally it was a way to stretch the leftovers of stews such as puchero or cocida, both of This dish was later taken to Cuba where the Cubans made it their own. Central in this dish are beef and. Ropa Vieja, or tender Cuban-style shredded beef, is stewed in a pepper tomato sauce.

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